In Thomas Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs" it brings up the question on whether one can continue to call a "fallen woman" a fallen women after death. Is she free of such a label? Did she kill herself to rid herself of such a name? Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The context of this poem is rather tragic and told from either an omniscient voice or a person who found the girl speaking to someone who's taking care of the body. The speaker is very careful about the girl, urging the other individual to handle her as delicately as possible. He says in lines 13-14 to the other character to "Take her up instantly/ Loving, not loathing." She may be a dead prostitute, just because she is a prostitute it gives no reason for anyone to treat her uncivilly. The speaker's respect for the dead woman continues throughout the rest of the poem.
Touch her not scornfully; | 15 |
Think of her mournfully, | |
Gently and humanly; | |
Not of the stains of her, | |
All that remains of her | |
Now is pure womanly. | 20 |
From lines 15-20 the speaker is reminding the person/reader to not think of her as a prostitute. He repeats his early sentiment to take care of her with love because after death she became pure. Yes, if she were still alive one wouldn't think of using kind manners to a prostitute, but the speaker kindly requests for us to think "Not the of the stains of her,"(19) but as any pure woman who could have died that night. That life she lived as an unclean woman is over. Now that she is dead there is no point to continue with such bad behavior. All dead person's deserve respect.
Hood doesn't put to bed the thought of seeing the fallen woman as a new kind of person than being recognized for her old ways. In lines 21-35 the speaker continues to defend the woman's corpse, or rather her soul.
In she plunged boldly— | 72 |
No matter how coldly | |
The rough river ran— 74 |
As she drowns in the water, is it possible that she cleansed herself of her sins of a prostitute to cross over into the after life as the "pure woman" Hood hints at? This question may come off as a bit odd because suicide is a sin itself, but the representation of emerging her body through the water almost reminds one of a baptism taking place. She purified her soul so she may enter a world that's more deserving to live in.
Owning her weakness, 103 | |
Her evil behaviour, | |
And leaving, with meekness, | |
Her sins to her Saviour! 106 Towards the end of the poem the speaker suggest to us that before the woman ended her life she forgave herself of the life she led before. She knew that the life she led was "evil" and so as she quietly left her past life she carried her sins to the after life to place them before God (the Saviour from line 106). When I read this last stanza I thought to myself that she went before God with the strength in knowing she has sinned before and hopes for a new beginning in the afterlife, in Heaven. She left her worldly body because it was tarnished and everyone knew this of her. In Heaven she could be forgiven for her past life and start anew at a place where she can feel loved. To read the rest of the poem by Thomas Hood, visit: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bridge-of-sighs/ |
As you said above, men of higher class would be looked down on for communicating with a "fallen woman". How do you think readers during this period responded the Hood's message in the poem? Do you think that they disliked his view that once a "fallen woman" has died that they were pure again?
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating that the dead body becomes an object of speculation and interpretation, but her own identity or motivations or thoughts are absent. It is like she becomes a cipher for a "respectable" audience to forgive, but not genuinely know.
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